Thursday, August 25, 2011

District Attorney candidate Sandra Doorley has been let down, once more, by the Monroe County Democratic organization.

The Democratic office had sought to collect enough signatures on nominating petitions to get Doorley a second line on the ballot, under the name of the "Integrity Party." Word on the political street was that they were even soliciting paid petition-passers to get the job done.

Team Morelle blew it again.

As of today, when petitions submitted by mail, by the post-mark deadline of Tuesday, would have arrived at the County Board of Elections, Democratic headquarters hadn't submitted enough signatures.

Without the Conservative or Independence lines, and having lost even the Working Families line, Ms. Doorley remains in situ as a candidate with but one ballot line, facing an opponent with three.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Back in the 1970s, kids, there was no more potent symbol of crime and breakdown of social order in New York City, in its pre-Koch and pre-Giulani days, than graffiti-covered subway cars. From stem to stern, they were covered in it. We're talking about every train looking like this:

Inside, too:

Wealthy liberals, who of course never went near the subway or a bus, excused this outrage as "vibrant urban art." Meanwhile, middle-class people (New York still had a middle class then) had to ride to work in the squalor depicted above.

Then along came Mayor Ed Koch, one of the great big-city mayors of our time.

At a press conference back around 1980 Koch discussed his anti graffiti initiative. A reporter asked whether the City was planning to place dogs in the rail yards where the subway trains spent the night, and where the graffitists vandalized them.

"No," said Koch. "We're going to use wolves."

Just a bit of hyperbole to make the point. But in those few words, the people knew they had a mayor who was on their side. Fashionable opinion, especially of the "vibrant urban art" persuasion, was outraged. Koch, they said, was a primitive, a reactionary, a fear-monger, an extremist, a divider, a polarizer. Oh, and of course, a racist.

Funny thing, though. From that point on, the graffiti started to go. The vandals became afraid that Koch just might be crazy enough to make good on the wolves.

It marked the successful jump-start start of an intensive and ultimately triumphant program to clean up the subways. The last graffiti-covered subway car was removed from service in May 1989.

I was reminded of this by the sad news of the riots in England. A third night of it and they're debating whether to use rubber bullets, as London and Birmingham burn.

There aren't enough police, and in a country with strict gun control, the rioters know the population is defenseless.

London Mayor Boris Johnson and Prime Minister Cameron should mind the example of Mayor Koch. Tell them you're sending in the wolves.

Friday, August 5, 2011

In his role as County Democratic Chairman, Joe Morelle's greatest triumph in recent years was this spring's special election for Mayor. His candidate won with 49% of the vote. On the Democratic line. In the City of Rochester.

If that's the bright spot, it's because the bad has been so very bad. The string of Democratic losses and disappointments in Monroe County since about 2008 speaks for itself. Morelle's failure in '09 to pick up the one seat his party needed to take the County Legislature is emblematic.

Now comes his Double-Play District Attorney Debacle.

Play 1. Morelle carefully orchestrates kicking DA Mike Green upstairs to a federal judgeship, expressly to open the seat for Morelle's preferred choice, Judge Frank Geraci. No small feat, using lots of political capital.

When Morelle can't deliver either the Independence or Conservative lines on the November ballot for Geraci, the judge opts out. After all that effort and political capital spent, Morelle winds up stuck with the candidate he didn't want in the first place, Sandra Doorley.

Play 2. Recognizing the handicap to candidate Doorley of having only one line on the ballot, versus Republican Bill Taylor with three (R, C and Independence), Morelle scrambles to secure the Working Families line for Doorley.

Should be easy, right? The WF Party is a collection of some core Democratic constituencies, formed to give Democratic candidates another ballot position.

Yet the Working Families Party in Monroe County thinks so little of Morelle, and is sufficiently concerned about a late-starting Doorley campaign that it endorses ... Republican Bill Taylor.

A panicked Morelle runs to the State WF Chairman, who orders the party's Monroe County committee to rescind its endorsement of Taylor. As it then does. What it won't do, however, is endorse Doorley!

Outcome: the Working Families line on the November ballot will present no candidate for District Attorney. Sandra Doorley goes into the election with but a single line on the ballot -- the very issue that caused Geraci to punt on a race for DA.

Nice going.

One might ask why Monroe County Democrats want Morelle as their chairman, but maybe the more salient question is, at this point, why does he want to be?

Surely the Governor can find a well-paying sinecure for the poor guy to end his misery.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

The news this week of the potential sale of PAETEC to Windstream and the effects that it may have on Midtown once again show that there is a need for new leadership in City Hall. In no way should the process have moved this far along without a more binding agreement being made between PAETEC and the City of Rochester.

Strong and clear leadership was clearly left wanting while blind hope and pandering ruled the day. As we have unfortunately become accustom, City Hall proved again what happens with lack of foresight and common sense.

While I agree that Midtown mall needed to be demolished, it does concern me that City Hall was able to be towed along as far as it was without any contracts in place. Actions of this nature are unacceptable. When elected to City Council, I will advocate for the public and oppose such willful pandering and bring the strong and clear leadership that the City so desperately needs.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Here on Mustard Street we believe, among other things, that the government spends too much money. We believe as well that the American people already pay quite enough in taxes and shouldn't have to pay even more.